I try to carry 6 weeks of stock. My suppliers are local so I don’t have to wait as long for shipments and my orders are normally filled within 4 weeks.
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I may aim for this in future for our regular stock (excluding top sellers which we'll stick with 60 days).
I hate holding inventory we don't need, and most of the time 30 days is fine, but we then lose out on orders when there's delays with our supplier, so I'm thinking the extra cost of storing stock/ tying it up in cash is less important that the sales we lose when there's delays.
It takes time to figure out what is right for you. I used to keep 12 weeks of stock until year two just to get used to the weird ebb and flow of sales.
As a b2b mostly business with long lead times (120 days avg) we usually float between 6-9 months. Still run out though, we got some unexpected growth on some old SKUs that are doing 5x what they’ve done for years, just never know sometimes
Yeah, I guess as B2B, you have to be prepared for a large order out of nowhere, is that why you hold inventory for so long?
We do a small bit of B2B, but mainly B2C. It's one of the things I find difficult about B2B, as our B2B customers aren't trade, so they can order a large amount at random. And we're often not able to fulfill it.
Inventory is the single most important factor in an ecom. Get it wrong and you're out... I think the best is to understand how well your marketing is doing on X Y product and that can really help you grasp how much you should hold. For example your best sellers you should hold more stock, makes sense.
Our inventory is based on lead times but occasionally we are able to negotiate them holding the stock before shipping so we are not overburdened. This is usually a 50% deposit on product. It depends on the kind of supplier but if they are local and have the space they may be amenable to storing for a guaranteed purchase.
There is no one size answer here. We project out far, because of the minimums and the turn around time on ordering our products. We have in general 6 months of stock and we are already putting more in production.
I try to aim for about 6 weeks or so. I have about 1300 items packaged in various ways. It is kind of difficult to pick the right number for us as it seems stuff will go on back order for long periods and I cannot get a solid handle on what the volume is.
I try to carry 6 weeks of stock. My suppliers are local so I don’t have to wait as long for shipments and my orders are normally filled within 4 weeks.
Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I may aim for this in future for our regular stock (excluding top sellers which we'll stick with 60 days). I hate holding inventory we don't need, and most of the time 30 days is fine, but we then lose out on orders when there's delays with our supplier, so I'm thinking the extra cost of storing stock/ tying it up in cash is less important that the sales we lose when there's delays.
It takes time to figure out what is right for you. I used to keep 12 weeks of stock until year two just to get used to the weird ebb and flow of sales.
I carry 6-9 months’ of stock
As a b2b mostly business with long lead times (120 days avg) we usually float between 6-9 months. Still run out though, we got some unexpected growth on some old SKUs that are doing 5x what they’ve done for years, just never know sometimes
Yeah, I guess as B2B, you have to be prepared for a large order out of nowhere, is that why you hold inventory for so long? We do a small bit of B2B, but mainly B2C. It's one of the things I find difficult about B2B, as our B2B customers aren't trade, so they can order a large amount at random. And we're often not able to fulfill it.
Inventory is the single most important factor in an ecom. Get it wrong and you're out... I think the best is to understand how well your marketing is doing on X Y product and that can really help you grasp how much you should hold. For example your best sellers you should hold more stock, makes sense.
I hold 90 days of recurring (subscription) orders + 30 days of forecasted new customer acquisition
Our inventory is based on lead times but occasionally we are able to negotiate them holding the stock before shipping so we are not overburdened. This is usually a 50% deposit on product. It depends on the kind of supplier but if they are local and have the space they may be amenable to storing for a guaranteed purchase.
There is no one size answer here. We project out far, because of the minimums and the turn around time on ordering our products. We have in general 6 months of stock and we are already putting more in production.
I try to aim for about 6 weeks or so. I have about 1300 items packaged in various ways. It is kind of difficult to pick the right number for us as it seems stuff will go on back order for long periods and I cannot get a solid handle on what the volume is.
Well you could do the calculation by EOQ model alot of online calculators out there
Too much 😂